All entries for December 2004

Whoopidoo!

Follow-up to Home, sweet home from Kari's blog

I passed my exam!!!! Yay!!!! Got 8.5 out of 9 possible!!!! Yay!!!!!!!!

Sorry – just had to announce to the world that I managed to do something useful over the holiday =D

Now all I have to do is write 4–6000 words, read a few books and figure out how the EU works – over the next seven days… Anyone got a brain to lend me?

: 27 Dec 2004 15:11 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

X–mas concert

Wow, wow, wow!

On 10th December me, Mum and Bigsis went to Tønsberg to see Oslo Gospel Choir's Christmas Concert.

I think there was about 3500–4000 people there – everyone dressed up and looking Christmassy.

They sung lots of well-known Christmas songs such as En stjerne skinner i natt/A star is shining tonight (which Rev performed in Conventry Cathedral the week before), Alf Prøysens Romjulsdrøm, a medley of English Christmas carols, Oh Holy Night, etc. It was so beautiful. I gave up trying to count the number of times I had goose-bumps and chills going up and down my spine. I even had tears in my eyes as the choir and the whole audience stood up singing a Christmas hymn called Deilig er jorden/Earth is magnificent. I think it is more loved and cherished than our national anthem… It's the only song everyone stands up for no matter what.

Anyway… I had such a great time! If OGC comes anywhere near you, go and see them! It is worth having to live on pasta for a week to hear them live!

: 26 Dec 2004 16:17 |  Tags: Oslo Gospel Choir |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Home, sweet home

I am now sitting in the comfort of my home in Norway watching the sun rise after the year's longest night. Unfortunately it is cloudy – hopefully clouds full of snow!

Speaking of which, we had half a meter of snow – untill two days before I came home! Typical! And me who am getting skiing-boots for Christmas! I went shopping with my Granddad – also known as Bestefar – to make sure my Christmas-present would fit my feet =D That was actually one of the hightlights so far of my holiday.

First I dropped Mum off at work and then drove on to Tønsberg and an island called Nøtterøy, which is where my maternal grandparents are to be found. We had a very nice day in town (despite weather resembling english conditions =S), I got skiing-boots and Bestefar got a bit hug – so we were both very pleased =D

Then the next day I got on the train to Oslo. Being in the process of applying for masters in four countries, I had to take an English language-exam. Three years in England and three years in an IB-school before that was not enough, so off i went to Oslo. My best friend of all times, Brit Ronja, let me crash on her floor for the night as the exam started at 8.00am on the Thursday. I found my way through the pitch-black dark of early morning and got there in one piece – calming my nerves with reading the first book in the discworld series.

The exam was hard – well… Hard in the way that the passages we had to read were way too long compared to the time allotted. Also, we were not allowed to write out our answer, we had to chose between A, B and C, or true, false or given – something I never am able to do in any of my three languages! I think I read too much into the texts. The only part of the exam I am sure I did well on was the oral – the examiner exclaimed that my English was more English-sounding than hers and alos probably better (sorry – had to include a bit of bragging here!). So in two weeks I get the results – fingers crossed!

Right now there is an electrician working in our flat discovering one dodgy plug after another. I do wonder what the people living here before us were thinking of – DIY in electrics is illegal in this country for a reason!!!!

Anyway… Enough ranting… I'll go back to chanting instead (am hoping that those 3–4 inches of snow may grow soon!).

TTFN - Ta-ta for now!

: 21 Dec 2004 08:11 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem